Electrical storage apparatuses as power supplies used for vehicles or electricity storage include a plurality of secondary batteries that are discharged and recharged to put the electrical storage apparatuses in action. Such an electrical storage apparatus requires forced cooling, since the secondary batteries are charged or recharged by a large current, which causes the secondary batteries to generate heat to thereby increase temperature of the electrical storage apparatus.
The forced cooling is accomplished by using a fan or a pump that supplies gas or liquid coolant to a cooling passage that is in contact with a surface of each secondary battery.
A known electrical storage apparatus includes both gas cooling means and liquid cooling means to thereby allow either one of the following two conditions to be selected, one in which either one of the cooling means is operated and the other in which both cooling means are operated. The electrical storage apparatus is intended to minimize a difference in temperature among the secondary batteries as much as feasible by adjusting cooling effects of the secondary batteries that are varying according to a temperature difference of the operating environment and a specific position at which the cooling passage is disposed and to reduce power consumption (see, for example, Patent Document 1).